The necessity of diligence may, indeed, be regarded as the main root and spring of all that we call progress in different civilizations. In every walk of life happiness is a fruit of which labor is the seed. We cannot enjoy the fruit without sowing the seed. Fortune has often been blamed for the blindness, but fortune is not as blind as men are. Those who took into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of industrious and perseverant and the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators. Success treads on the heels of every right effort, and though it is possible to over-estimate success as the gift of deity, still in any worthy pursuit it is the diligent and painstaking who go the longest and win the most. Success is seldom dependable; like money earned by gambling; such hits only serve to hire one to ruin. 
Those who fail in life are, however, very apt to assume a tone of injured innocence, and conclude too hastily that everybody excepting themselves has had a hand in their personal misfortunes. Generally, they consider themselves born to ill luck, and make up their minds that the world invariably goes against them without any fault on their own part. But such complaints against fate or luck, if we look into the matter closely and critically, we shall discover, are altogether futile and baseless. Fate is nor a conscious being that can make or mar our happiness. It is creation of idle fancy, an invention of superstitious brains.
When men cannot examine and acknowledge their own weakness, say owing to their excessive self-love or lack of courage, not be able to attribute their failure to other, they take a convenient shelter under fate. Hence, it will be found that those who lament their luck are indeed in some form or other repairing the consequences of their own neglect, mismanagement, incapacity, or want of industry and application.
Many ways of achieving fame and fortune have been suggested but as Samuel Smiles says, "The common highway of steady industry and application is the only safe road to travel." There is no other secret of success. The proverbs of every nation abundantly testify. "We make our fortunes and call them fate," "No pains, no gains", "No sweat, no sweet", "Work and thou shalt have", "The world is his who has patience and industry", "heaven helps those who help themselves”, "It is better to bear out than rust out"; such are the specimens of the proverbial philosophy, embodying the hoarded experience of many generations, as the best means of thriving in the world. They have stood the test of time and experience of every day still bears witness to their accuracy, force and soundness.
Not only the proverbs but the lives of great men bear an ample witness to the fact that success, and happiness are achieved not by those who move along the 'primrose path of dalliance' but by those who 'scorn delight and live laborious days'.
Diligence has been a necessary principle of happiness, progress and prosperity not only in the life of the individuals but also in that of the great nations. The vigorous growth of any nation on the face of the globe has been mainly the result of the free energy of individuals and it has been contingent upon the number of hands and minds from time to time actively employed within it, whether as cultivators of the soil, producers of articles of utility, contrivers of tools and machines, writers of books, or creators of works of art. Things which are today the pride of human race were achieved through the diligent and untiring efforts of man. It was continuous labor that built immortal pyramids in the plains of Egypt. It was by virtue of slow and steady perseverance that the wall protecting the territory of China was raised, the peaks of Alps and Himalayas enveloped with clouds and snow were conquered and flourishing cities, states and nations brought into existence where once wild forests and mountains existed. It is the untiring labor of man that has discovered unknown islands and covered the breast of sea with ships, revealed the secrets of nature, sealed the heights of heaven, counted stars of the infinite cosmos and produced imperishable works of art, science, literature and philosophy.
But one thing has to be borne in mind in this connection. Diligence would never lead to any worthy and valuable achievement unless it is coupled with intelligence. Labor pays when it is applied intelligently to achieving a certain end. Carlyle has said that genius is the capacity of putting in infinite amount of labor. With labor a genius may achieve his objective but it does not mean that labor can create genius.
The essence of life is activity, adventure and struggle. We live in deeds not in years. Let us, therefore, find our responsibility and the objective both as individuals and as a nation and leave no stone unturned in achieving that objective.